


Boys, Beer, and a Whole Lot of Free Time

by Bernthemall (BernThemAll)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: AU - Modern, Knights - Freeform, M/M, Merthur - Freeform, Road Trip, pub, uni - Freeform, university - au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4691285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BernThemAll/pseuds/Bernthemall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon, Gwaine and the rest of 'The Knights' convince their 'leader' Arthur to go on a two month long road-trip around the UK. 2 weeks in, and in a little Welsh town, the group meet small-town pub owner, Merlin, who makes them feel more at home than they've felt anywhere else. And Arthur is no exception to Merlin's charms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boys, Beer, and a Whole Lot of Free Time

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally no knowledge of anywhere in England (even though I was born and grew up here) except London so don't take anything except for actually locations as fact pleeease x

Don't get Arthur wrong. London is great. It's fucking fantastic. Living in the centre of a city where literally every star visits daily and the top hangout for the hottest girls (and guys - Arthur's not fussed) has its perks. But Leon's right. It gets tiresome. The immense crowds and rude responses. It makes Arthur miss living his little country life more and more, and hate his infuriating baby sister Morgana less and less. Something he never thought would happen.

And Uni life is incredible. The inpendence, the respect... The girls (and guys). But once again, Leon is right; it's repetitive. And the problem with courses like Arthur's, is that they go at full speed for the whole duration of the four years. He just needs a break.

So when Leon suggests, whilst Arthur's 'clique', affectionately dubbed 'The Knights', are gathered at the round table of the Camelot pub, that they go on a long road-trip for their synchronised gap-year, the idea actually doesn't sound half bad.

The reaction Arthur gets when he voices this opinion is only half suprising.

"Wait you're not shutting this down?" Gwaine laughs, disbelieveing. He shakes his head, dark hair bouncing and swaying with the movement, as he takes a swig of beer from the period style glass.

"Is it so hard to believe that a killjoy like me might actually want a break?!" Arthur scoffs, eyebrows raised and challenging.

"No, its not the break itself," Percival supplies the answer, "it's the fact that you're actually considering a fun one for once."

The entire table errupts into laughter, causing various patrons to pause in their conversations to look at the men.

"I think it's a good idea." Lancelot admits when the group calms down. He hadn't spoken much the entire time that the men have been there, so the whole table turns their heads to look at him.

"Well it's settled." Percy says, "Road-trip it is!"

"Wait, wait, wait." Arthur interupts, "How is it settled?"

Gwaine looks at him as if he has two heads, "Lance likes idea, and he's the most responsible of all of us."

Arthur stares incredulously, "And I'm not responsible?"

Elyan is the one to respond, "You're boring, not responsible," He says, "There's a difference."

Arthur stares at his friends individually, studying their faces one by one, "Boring?" He screeches, then scoffs, "Unbelievable."

~~~

The first stop, on their wild journey of self-discovery, is Brighton, allegedly the campest part of England. The lads, being the shittest group of friends a guy like Arthur could hope for, tease him relentlessly over the 3 days. About the guys that checked him out and the ones his own eyes lingered on for just a little to long to be innocent. The first day was spent on a beach, a terrible one. Filled with pebbles and severely lacking in sand, or anything remotely 'beachy' in Gwaine's articulate wording. The next two days were filled with parties and drinks and flirting with anyone who looked their way. And suddenly, in Brighton, the sexualities of 6 testosterone filled university students were completely forgotten, in two nights of intense partying and two mornings of equally intense hangovers.

"That guy I kissed the other night gave me his number." Gwaine tells Arthur on the drive to Bournemouth, a seaside with actual sand on the shore. The pair sat in the front two seats as the others slept off their throbbing headaches. Not to say that Gwaine and Arthur weren't suffering from the severe aftermath too, it's just that they were the only two that could hold their liquor. Well, them and Percival, but he slept like a hibernating bear on most days - looked like one half the time too.

"Good for you, Gwaine." Arthur says mockingly, feigning interest, "It's about time you embraced your true sexuality; willing screw anything that moves."

"Oh come on Arthur," Gwaine laughs arrogantly, "You knew that about me already."

Arthur doesn't answer, only laughs softly and shakes his head at him.

"Seriously though, Pendragon, I thought you might like his number," Gwaine explains, then carries on at Arthur's raised eyebrow, "And yes I know you're not - how did you so delicately put it? - 'Willing to screw everything that moves' but you do need to get back on the bandwagon, Brother."

"I said 'anything' not 'everything' but that really isn't far from the truth." Arthur says, condescending, bypassing the entire topic of Gwaine's small monologue.

"That is so not the point."

"Yeah well..." Arthur faulters, not having a worthy comeback, then blurts, "You're stupid."

~~~

At some point during the stops at Bournemouth and Plymouth, Gwaine had been stung by a 'pesky' jellyfish. Lance teases him, telling him that there aren't any jellyfish in English beaches, and that it must have been some sort of evil sea-creature who prays on alluring young men. Gwaine doesn't enter the water again.

They visit Stonehenge in Wiltshere, where Percival insists is the definition of bad vibes and leave only a day after out of boredom. Apparently the witchy voodoo circle the stones created was 'totally spooky'.

The next stop, is Warwick Castle, because Gwaine was hellbent living like an actual knight for at least one day. None of the six grown men would admit the fact that they had the time of their lives playing dress up at an old English castle. No. Absolutely not. Well, 5, excluding Gwaine.

~~~

The day they visit Wales is the day when it gets interesting. A small town named Ealdor, homes an even smaller pub, called 'Kilgharrah', or 'The Great Dragon' to tourists who couldn't pronounce the funny word.

The owner, a lithe young man, not much older than Arthur, if at all, was peculiar, with a strange accent and ridiculous ears that stuck out from his head like signposts.

"Welcome!" He exclaims happily, coming over to greet the group of university boys, "To the Kilgaragh Pub! I'm Merlin, the owner."

When the man - Merlin - gets close enough, Arthur can see how handsome he actually is - in a gangly, adorable-yet-sexy sort of way. The most striking part of him: his intense, pale blue eyes, that seem to linger on Arthur as long as Arthur's own (admittedly) linger on Merlin.

The Knights don't reply to Merlin, who still stands before them with a goofy smile on his pretty face. They seemed as though they were waiting for another to speak up for them. It's only a moment later that Arthur realises that as their 'King' it was him they were waiting for.

"Oh," He clears his throat awkwardly before continuing, "This is Leon," he starts, going down the line his friends had formed, "Elyan, Percival, Gwaine and Lancelot."

Everything is silent again, as if they wanted him to continue on.

"And you?" Merlin prompts.

"What?" Arthur replies, then understands, mentally facepalming, "I'm Arthur."

"Like the king?"

"Exactly like the king," Gwaine confirms, then smirks at his friend, sensing the obvious sexual tension oozing from the pair, "Right, Your Highness."

"Shut up," Arthur says, his eyes not leaving Merlin's.

The man gives him a smile, wide and bright, so that the corners of his eyes crinkle up with the movement. And Arthur can't find the strength to deny the fact that his heartbeat quickened just a little bit.

~~~

Arthur first thinks Merlin is stranger than most on the third day. They should be leaving, but Elyan proclaimed that this pub made 'The best damn English breakfast in all of the counties', so they decided to stay for the week. They were way ahead of schedule anyway.

There was a stool, a plain old bar stool that looked a little worse for wear. Sat on a few too many times so the upholstery was worn and tearing. Dated enough to still have the traditional patterns of the 60s. One of its legs had been broken off, so it sat alone in a dark corner of the establishment, waiting to be fixed.

Arthur had noticed it on the first day, but it had been repaired by the third. Normally the incident would have gone by unnoticed, but the fact that Merlin had told him that he'd fixed it himself really threw him off. Not only did the awkward Welshman not strike him as the DIY type, but Arthur was sure he hadn't seen the pub owner leave the bar long enough to fix a chair that had been long past its sell-by date. So it left the student wondering how on Earth he'd done it.

"Magic." Merlin had told him one day when he'd confronted him. He had a twinkle in his eye and a twang to his voice that made it impossible to take him seriously. So he doesn't.

Arthur laughs, stupidly, as if he's finally in on the joke, and Merlin is looking at him with this fond little smirk that makes Arthur's heart do funny things.

"So," he says between laughs, "Where are you from? You don't sound Welsh."

"Because I'm not." Merlin says, smiling at him, eyes suddenly looking years wiser than himself, "I'm from Ireland. Northern Ireland to be exact."

If Arthur thought Merlin was attractive before, the fact that the weird accent was actually Irish added to the feeling.

~~~

They meet Gwen on the fourth day, a beautiful young lady that Arthur probably would've fancied if he wasn't already besotted with Merlin. Besides, Lancelot already called dibs on her without even needing to say it.

As Merlin's best friend, Gwen took it upon herself to grill Arthur on all of his intentions (towards Merlin obviously) and call Arthur every name under the sun to get her point across. The point being, 'you hurt him I will come to London and personally whoop your arse. I know people'. And although Gwen is the least intimidating human being Arthur's ever met, he was too afraid to even try to downplay his major crush on the owner of the sweet little Welsh pub.

"So why are you here in Wales?" Lance asks Gwen as she sets down dinner for the guests. He has this cute, shy smile on his face and his voice is a little uneven. Arthur almost chokes on his beer laughing. Lance kicks him.

"I'm from London, like you." She says, a faint blush on her face, "I was born there."

"Oh?" Percival interjects, "Why did you leave?"

Gwen shrugs, setting a napkin down on her lap with a strangely large amount of grace, "I left after college, my brother was more of the university sort, I enjoyed travel. He ended up going to LSE."

"Like us?" Arthur asks. "Yes, actually." She smiles, "Maybe you know him, his name's Elyan."

"Elyan?!" Gwaine exclaims, evidently loud enough to summon the man to the room at the sound of his name.

"Yes dear Gwaine?" Elyan huffs, half amused, half annoyed.

"You don't happen to know this lovely young lady?" Gwaine asks in his flirtiest voice. Flirtiest, just to get under Lance's skin.

Elyan looks at the blushing girl and his eyes widen like saucers, "Guinevere?!" He exclaims in delight, "I didn't know you were here!"

"Elyan!" Gwen shoots up, throwing her arms around her brother, "I've missed you!" She slaps his arm and he lets out a yelp, "Why haven't you been in touch?"

"I've been... busy." Elyan's voice gets quieter word by word. His eyes trail downward until they find the floor, staying there until his sister's voice pipes up again.

"Partying with these knuckleheads, I presume?"

"Hey!" Gwaine whines.

"Well she's not wrong," Leon laughs, "Especially not when it comes to you."

A hand falls softly onto Arthur's bicep whilst he is wistfully engrossed in the antics of his friends. He hardly notices when it lightly sqeezes, or when it trails down his arm to entangle itself in his fingers, until he feels its light grasp.

"Your friends are lovely." Merlin says, laughter still dancing in his blue eyes. Arthur had never seen anything more beautiful. "I-um." He's lost for words, a phenomenon that very seldom occurs, but when it does, it is truly mortifying. Arthur blushes.

"No need to respond." Merlin teases, his lips stretching into a mischievous smile, "Honestly I like that I've rendered you speechless. Something tells me that that doesn't happen too often."

Arthur nudges his shoulder at that, a reluctant smile growing on his face despite himself.

"You're infuriating."

"You love it."

"You're right," Arthur looks at Merlin, "I do."

The landlord blushes furiously and opens his mouth to reply but is rudely interrupted.

"Hey lovebirds!" Leon calls out to them, snapping them out of their private world, "The lady asked you a question."

"Dessert?" Gwen asks them politely, though it's clear from the look in her eyes that she finds their embarrassment just as amusing as the boys.

"Oh no don't worry about them, love," Gwaine pipes up, prompting Arthur to curse under his breath and run a hand down his face, "Something tells me that Arthur's getting something else for pudding."

Arthur _groans_  at that, feeling his face heat up rapidly and turning away in embarassment. The group burst into yet another round of laughter, at Arthur's expense once again. He was beginning to think it was becoming a running gag.

"Ha ha very funny." He grumbles, letting go of Merlin's hand - which had grown alarmingly comfortable locked in his - and stands up, with all intention of shutting himself in his guest room until the Knights decided to continue their journey. That is... Until Merlin's hand slides into his once again.

"Don't be so sensitive." He says softly and fondly, thumb trailing over Arthur's knuckles, "I never thought a clotpole like you would be broken down by a few dirty jokes." He nudges Arthur's shoulder with his own, "Besides," his voice lowers, "I'd love to see if they're just jokes, or real fantasy."

Arthur splutters, nearly spitting out the beer inside his mouth. His violent coughs grab the attention of everyone in the room, and in the corner of his eye, he could see Merlin, the little minx, going red with laughter.

"You alright, Arthur?" Lance asks, ever the gentleman.

"Um, I, ahem. Yes."

"Best go easy on him, Merlin, looks like he's choking already!" Percival calls, then high fives Gwaine proudly.

Gwen grimaces, without any real distaste, and slaps Percy's shoulder, "You're filthy." "

You ain't seen the half of it, gorgeous." Gwaine winks, earning a kick in the shin from the one and only Lancelot (the ever honourable).

~~~

When they leave Ealdor, and the Kilgharrah pub, Arthur undoubtedly leaves a piece of his heart with it.

"You won't forget me then?" Merlin says as he and Arthur stand at the entrance of The Great Dragon, watching the others pack their stuff in the boot of Arthur's minivan, "Won't get too distracted by all the hot London boys to call me?"

Arthur looks at Merlin, whose eyes are surveying the empty street, falling on every building, signpost and phone box, but failing to find Arthur's own. Arthur puts a hand on his wiry arm, trailing his fingers down its length and grasping the hand at the end.

"I don't think I'd be able to look at anybody else when I know you're only 200 miles away." Arthur smirks.

Merlin smiles at the floor, squeezing Arthur's hand as he had the other night.

"200 miles to drive but only 2 second to dial the phone." He finally brings his eyes up to the blond's.

"Yeah and a 2 hour drive to our next destination, so let's pack the hell up and get the hell out." Leon shouts to Merlin and Arthur, leaning nonchalant on the van, a joyful glint in his eye.

Arthur sighs, bowing his head down to look at his shoes.

"Well," he says quiet and defeated, "Guess I'll see you soon-"

"You know," Merlin says thoughtfully, as if he hadn't heard Arthur at all, "You haven't kissed me yet."

That takes Arthur back. He's already a couple steps ahead, ready to say his goodbyes and depart - but - Merlin was right. Amongst all of the flirting and teasing- the couple that had fuelled the group's jokes, had not even kissed once.

"Well..." He says, a shy smile on his face, "Maybe we could change that."

Merlin looks past Arthur, to the Knights; watches them watching him and their 'king'. He grins and leans in to him. Arthur mirrors him, edging closer to the taller man, eyes trained on his lips before they close completely. Merlin's lips, however, do not find Arthur's own, but instead his ear; just as soft, but frankly misplaced.

"I'm not going to kiss you, Arthur." Merlin whispers in his ear, keeping a firm grip on his forearm when he tries to move away, "Think of it as... Motivation to return."

Arthur supresses a smile, and pecks Merlin's cheek. He steps back, and keeps walking backward towards his van, eyes locked on Merlin's.

"I'll count the hours!" He calls out as he reaches his van, the other boys dead silent watching the exchange.

Merlin grins widely, Gwen smirking next to him, "You, Arthur Pendragon," he says, eyes wide and shining, filled with the promise of another day, "Have far too much free time."

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

_P.S: Arthur does eventually get that kiss._


End file.
